Lost in Translation
by AWriter159
Summary: When Armitage Hux finds himself with a series of documents none of his translators are able to understand, he turns to the only person he trusts enough to help. A master linguist, resident forger, and amateur code breaker, Alexandria Townes soon finds herself elbow deep in the world of darkness, mystery, and perhaps, love—but only if she can survive long enough to find it.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

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Despite his young age, Armitage Hux felt like he was getting far too old to be doing this type of grunt work. With tired eyes, he watched as the ship slowly eased into its landing, the landing gear resting on the raised platform seconds later. With several whooshes and hisses, the ramp shot out and Armitage found himself walking down it and onto the landing platform. He breathed in the smog filled air and briefly he wondered if there was anymore fresh air left on this horrible planet. He loathed Coruscant with a passion he typically only reserved for thoughts of his father. However, working for the First Order meant sometimes he had to wander into the galaxy's foulest regions and despite his argument that Coruscant desperately needed to be decimated once and for all, he still found himself visiting the filthy ecumenopolis.

He was almost convinced that it was on purpose—Ren knew he hated Coruscant and sent him anyway. It was petty really, if there was one thing Armitage knew about the force user, it was that he couldn't resist a good old fashioned pissing contest. Grumbling under his breath, Armitage ignored his transport driver and instead took the furthest seat away to avoid any unwanted conversation. It wasn't until the doors were folded back in that the transport agent turned around, "Where to...sir?"

Armitage carried himself in a way that only someone with a military background would, and the filthy man must've recognized that, causing Armitage to puff up his chest ever so slightly. Since The First Order was still operating underground, there was no reason anyone should know who he was just yet, as Snoke wanted them to remain undetected for now—until Ren was ready. "The 1100s," the agent hesitated and Armitage inwardly rolled his eyes, " _Now_."

The agent seemed to snap into action, lifting the small transport ship up into the air before zooming off into Coruscant's horrible air traffic. The trip took longer than Armitage would have liked, but eventually they made it down to the 1100s. The general didn't bother thanking the agent and only passed over a credit stick with the proper amount before stepping foot onto the filthy pathway of level 1101. Part of the underbelly of Coruscant, 1101 was somewhere in between immoral and wealthy. With the prostitution rings in the 800s and the gangsters and assassins in the 1500s, level 1101 consisted of canteens, housing units, and arms dealers. He passed by several street rats as he moved down the streets, making sure to keep a watchful eye on them as he passed. Except for the blaster nearly glued to his ribcage inside his heavy coat, Armitage didn't have anything on him that he couldn't afford to be robbed of. The air was even more foul down in the 1100s and Armitage opened his mouth to breath, not wanting to smell the horrible stench of human filth any longer than he needed to. The canteen he was looking for was located on the opposite end of the level and mentally he cursed the agent for putting him down so far away from it. As he turned a corner he expertly crossed the street to avoid running into a prostitute.

The girl didn't look much older than eighteen and he hoped she was at least of age. While he didn't have much care for good vs. bad in terms of morality, he wasn't heartless and underage trafficking was low, even for the crime world. He made a mental note to bring it up after his meeting, he knew she'd deal with it if it was something worth looking into.

The canteen was nameless and sign-less, as it were only meant for those that knew it was there. Once he'd located it, he pushed the door open with the toe of his heavy boot and wandered into the pub. The lighting was dark, the mood was edgy, and he ignored the curious stares as he made his way across the establishment, passed the bar and over to a doorway. A large man, at least three times Armitage's size stood in front of a door, his arms crossed threateningly across his chest.

"Can I help you?" Despite his question, the gruff man didn't appear interested in helping.

"Earlobe."

The large man eyed him from head to toe and back up before stepping aside and opening the door with a quick push—his dark eyes following him until he disappeared behind the door. The spiral staircase led him to a medium sized room on the second level, which held a plush couch, tattered arm chairs, and shelves upon shelves of knickknacks, holo pads, and random pieces of equipment that he didn't care to understand. A desk sat against one wall, in front of a giant half circle window with a view of the disgusting street below. Behind the desk sat a beautiful brunette who contrasted greatly with the crude and polluted atmosphere of level 1101. Alexandria Townes had her hair tied back into a high ponytail, and she only glanced up at him briefly before turning her attention back to her datapad. She was in the middle of something and Armitage knew she'd get to him when she was finished, so he took the time to observe the newly added items to her shelf. He could see a few lava rocks from Mustafar and even a few trinkets from some of the planets in the Lothal Sector. Curious as to how she'd gotten a hold of one of the old telescopes of Jedha, he'd just reached up to touch it when he heard her chair slide across the wooden floor.

"It's old," She warned him and he glanced over his shoulder to see Alexandria standing in front of her desk, leaning against it, "I wouldn't touch it if I were you."

Armitage lowered his hand and turned to face her, taking her in for the first time in at least two years. Despite her hair being tied back, he could tell it was longer. Her piercing blue eyes observing him—reading him in a way that only she could. With her hands resting beside her on the desk, and her legs crossed at the ankles, Armitage couldn't help but wonder if her curves had always been so voluptuous, or if it was simply the tight fitting sleeveless top she was wearing. He mentally scolded himself for wandering down that road with her, and made a small note to call up one of his romantic contacts for some relief before he headed back to base. The woman in front of him was one of his oldest allies and despite her alluring appearance, he knew they'd never get on and he shouldn't be thinking of her that way. Besides, Alexandria would drive him absolutely mad if they were to become anything other than friends.

"It's been awhile, Armitage." She tapped her fingers against the desk, "what can I do for you?"

"I've run across a document," Armitage explained as he took a few steps closer to her, "and I need some help identifying if it's forged or not."

Alexandria cocked her head to the side and Armitage swallowed thickly as he did his best not to focus on the low cut of her shirt—maybe he'd have to venture down to the 800s before he left Coruscant. He shouldn't be having these thoughts about her and he desperately wished her off-putting attitude would rear its head soon to cool his blood. "Did you bring it with you?"

"No," He scoffed, "down here? Of course not. I couldn't risk it being lifted."

She rolled her eyes, "you act like we're the 300s, Armitage. 1101 really isn't as bad as it looks."

"I highly doubt that," He clipped back and she lifted her eyes to the ceiling, "if it's even a fraction of how bad it looks and smells, then it's far worse than I imagined."

"You've still got that aristocratic attitude, I see." She walked passed him and over to one of the walls, pulling a sphere shaped object out, she pressed a button before a giant holo screen filled the area around her. She lifted a finger and pressed various places expertly, diving deeper into the data world. "Who are you working for?"

"The First Order."

Her hand stilled and she glanced over at him curiously, "What are you doing with them?"

"Righting the galaxy of all its wrongs."

She snorted and turned her attention back to the screen, "good luck with that." Like most young people their age, Alexandria was also a product of the war. Born during a fearful and violent time in the galaxy, she, like so many her age, had seen and suffered during the aftermath of the war. "Point me in the right direction—First Order stuff is still a little new to me and I haven't had to infiltrate them yet."

"Comforting," Armitage took a step forward to stand beside her, directing her to the correct location of the documents once she was successfully inside their programming systems.

As she scanned the coding, she arched a curious eyebrow, steering away to look a little deeper into their files. "DJ's been here." She mused softly, recognizing the work of one of her preferred slicers.

Armitage turned his head sharply to look at her, "What?"

"DJ," She pointed to the program coding, as if he would be able to understand what she was saying, "DJ's sliced into your credit programs."

"That's not possible."

"Well, he did." Alexandria shrugged, "besides, you should know that anything is possible with the right amount of skill and determination."

"Tell me you're not with him again," Armitage lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, "please tell me you're not with him."

"Define with..."

"Townes…"

"I'm not with him," She waved him off with a roll of her eyes, "It's only casual, haven't even seen him in a few months."

"He's literally twice your age." Armitage turned to face her completely, forgetting the task at hand, "Not to mention totally hopeless and du—"

She turned to face him, arching her carefully sculpted eyebrow, "First, he's not twice my age. He's forty-five, that makes him only seventeen years older than I am and second...he's also _incredibly_ attractive."

"He's old enough to be your father!"

She scoffed and flipped back to the previous screen she was searching for, running her own finder code as she did, "It doesn't matter. We're not together."

"I would hope not." Alexandria only rolled her eyes at his mumbled response, "have you found it?"

"Working on it," Her tone was filled with warning and Armitage fell silent, knowing she was only a few words away from throwing him out and sending him back empty handed, "what's it's registry number?"

"3498Q."

She navigated to the proper file and opened it up, revealing a document dated back to the republic era. Curious, she tapped through it, scanning the archaic language as she did, "where did you get this?"

"We found it in the Empire's old archives."

Her eyes flickered over to him yet again, "What are you doing rooting around the Empire's old archives?"

"That's none of your concern." She didn't care for his answer but instead of pushing it further, she looked back at the document, "so do you know who forged it? I didn't think it looked like your work but…"

"It's not a forged document, Armitage." Alexandria turned to face him, a surprised and slightly startled look on her face, "It's the real thing."


	2. Chapter Two

A/N: There were a lot of views last chapter, but no reviews. Reviews please? :)

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Chapter Two

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"I'm not going with you."

Armitage had spent the last two hours arguing with the girl in front of him. She was now sitting at her desk, her arms folded across her chest like a child as they stared at one another. "Townes," He walked forward and rested his hands on the desk between them, "you have to come back with me. I need you to dive into this with me, we've got to figure out what this means…"

"I'm not an archivist, Armitage." Alexandria shook her head no, "I'm not even a historian. There's no way I could help you."

"You've got to see the real thing." Armitage was determined, fully aware that she could read it.

"I saw it." She pointed to the holo-computer still flickering across the wall, "I read it. I don't know what you're looking into, but I know more than I should and I don't want it coming back to bite me in the ass."

"Which is why you have to come with me."

"You should have told me what it was," Alexandria's eyes were flashing dangerously, and Armitage knew he was in trouble, "but instead you've drug me into whatever kriffed up world you and The First Order are creating. I don't want any part of this."

"You read it," Armitage brought their conversation back to the point, "You can read it. Townes, that's something, isn't it? I couldn't read it, no of my translators could read it. You must come back with me, help me translate it."

"No."

"Why are you being so stubborn?" Armitage slammed his hand down on the desk between them, "The First Order needs your help...I need your help! Doesn't that mean anything anymore?"

"Of course it means something," Alexandria's temper was starting to flare, matching Armitage's own, "that's why you were even allowed in here! I don't just let anyone waltz in here and ask for my help. I have things to do, you know. Things that help me eat and keep me safe, Armitage."

"The First Order will pay you."

"I don't want their money," Alexandria shook her head no firmly, "my people were

used and abused during the war, Armitage. I'm not going to allow myself to be used also."

"The New Republic is corrupt," Armitage hissed, "Their leaders are corrupt—they tried to appoint a First Senator! We can't allow another rise of unmatched power! The Centrists and the Populists...it's total shit, Townes, and you know it. They're setting us up for another uncheckable balance of powers. We've seen the levels of corruption, you and I both know Hosnian Prime isn't all that it appears to be."

"And your solution is the better option?"

"Yes!" Armitage was thoroughly enraged now, "At least with our idea, there are checks and balances. No one person would hold too much power, there would be a leader, yes, but at least there are boundaries in place to—"

"Where's your base?" Alexandria was growing tired of their conversation and the last thing she wanted was to be on the receiving line of Hux's long-winded propaganda speech.

"It's located just outside the outer rim."

"Ugh," Alexandria appeared to be debating with herself as she gnawed on her bottom lip. Her hands rested on her hips and despite his elevated frustration level, he couldn't help but notice the way they curved nicely in her tight trousers. He adjusted his own for a bit of relief just as she turned to pace back and forth. "It's like a four day travel to the outer rim."

"Three." He corrected her, wishing he hadn't when she shot him a look, "we won't stop. I've got a ship."

"A First Order ship?"

"Unmarked." He leaned against her desk, sitting on the corner of it while one leg dangled off the side, "But yes, a First Order ship."

"I want a guarantee that I will be free to leave whenever I choose." She frowned at him, her right hand lifting to press her index finger into the palm of her left hand, "I mean it Armitage, I will not be a prisoner. I'd sooner die."

"You have my word," Armitage promised with raised hands, "as a General of The First Order, you will not be imprisoned."

"And I'm allowed to leave whenever I please?"

"You have your freedom."

"I'm only staying long enough to translate your documents." Alexandria eventually caved, "I want the first transport out as soon as we're finished, am I clear?"

"Crystal."

Alexandria took a few steps over towards the hook on the wall, pulling off a thick black coat as she did so. The jacket was warm and slightly tattered, but it would keep her protected from the elements. She adjusted the coat around her shoulders, and once she was happy with the way it looked, she walked back around her desk. The first drawer held her credit sticks, which she quickly tucked into the pocket inside her jacket. The second drawer held her identification notes and a few personal effects. It didn't take long for her to slide two rings onto her fingers and clasp a necklace around her neck. The third and final drawer held a small, but lethal blaster which she quickly spun the notch to _kill_ and carefully tucked into the jacket's built in holster.

"No knives?" Armitage drawled. Alexandria lifted the hem of her pant leg to reveal a second holster, a sharp knife resting against her shin as he mumbled under his breath, "of course."

"Are you going to get rid of your hard on, or should I send up one of the girls to do that?" Alexandria countered and Armitage only rolled his eyes and sneered at her, both embarrassed and frustrated that she noticed his arousal. She quickly disabled the computer and sent off the encrypted message. Although she trusted Armitage, she wasn't too keen on The First Order and therefore decided to notify DJ of where she would be in case anything were to go wrong. Despite Armitage's best efforts at watching her closely, she knew he hadn't caught her slight slip of hand earlier.

The two walked down the stairs together, and after she gave careful instructions to the large man at the door in a language he didn't understand, Armitage found himself walking side by side down the sidewalk with Alexandria Townes. A master linguist, resident forger, and amateur code breaker, Armitage knew the bounty on her would be high, so he did his best to keep a watchful eye out. The Coruscant police wouldn't venture this far down into the underbelly, as they hardly went past the 2000s as it was.

Alexandria led the way back down towards the shuttle stop, keeping an eye out for any potential rides as she did. They had just turned the corner when she spotted a man by the name of Roger, who owned a small stolen speeder, but just as she was about to approach him to ask for a lift, she noticed Armitage nudge her gently. "How old is that girl?"

She turned her attention in the direction of Armitage's tilted head and sighed unhappily at the sight of the young girl leaning up against the wall. Barely sixteen, the girl was dressed in skimpy clothing, more suited for someone with more curves and less innocence. A cigarra rested between her index and middle finger and Alexandria inwardly groaned. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward, the girl not noticing her until it was too late, "Townes…"

"No," Alexandria's tone was firm as she reached forward and gripped the collar of the girl's coat, marching her away form the wall, "we've talked about this _numerous_ times, Shree. Not only are you too young to sell sex, but it's wrong."

"But—"

"The men aren't nice out here, Shree," Alexandria started to walk her towards a rusty looking unit, "they're not going to treat you nicely—especially if you're a virgin, do you understand? Get inside, you better tell your mother or I will, do you hear?"

"Yes, Townes."

"I mean it," Townes held her finger up, pointing it towards the younger girl, "No more or I'll ship you up to the 1800s."

Townes took the cigarra from the young girl and then sent her off inside. Armitage watched as Alexandria waited for the door to close before she walked back to him. She lifted the rolled narcotic to her lips and inhaled a deep drag before tossing it onto the filthy ground, stomping onto it with the heel of her boot. The smoke slowly filtered out through her nose and Armitage made a face as it wafted in his direction.

"Thought you quit."

"Just for old time's sake." Alexandria allowed the familiar drug to sink into her bloodstream, shooting upwards to her brain to give her a few seconds of relief.

Armitage tsked her disapprovingly as her vision blurred and she only stood there with her eyes closed for a few seconds of peace before the effect wore off. "Let's go, Townes."

The two made their way to the shuttle stop, since Roger was long gone with his stolen speeder. It only took about ten minutes for the next shuttle to arrive and after boarding and paying, the two sat together quietly in the back. They took three transfers, just to be safe, until they reached the top levels and Alexandria allowed Armitage to do the talking as he brought his ship out of holding. Familiar with the drill, she kept her head down and her eyes open as she prayed that Armitage knew what he was doing. She'd avoided prison this long, she wasn't interested in going now. Luckily it was only half an hour later when Alexandria found herself settling into the co-pilot seat of the sentinel-class shuttle. The craft would provide them a relatively pleasant trip to the outer rim, new enough so it had an autopilot mode, but old enough to not raise suspicion with any of the flight marshals.

Alexandria ran her eyes over the various instruments, she hadn't been in a ship other than a small shuttle in awhile and she was desperate to get her hands on the controls. Perhaps she'd have to hit up DJ after this and see if he'd commandeered any yachts she could take for a spin. "Don't even think about," Armitage had just finished his pre-flight check and was buckling himself into the pilot's seat, "you're not flying."

"Yeah, yeah."


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

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Alexandria leaned her head back against the headrest of the co-pilot seat, staring off into the dark abyss that was space. The stars moved at a rapid pace around them as they flew towards their destination at warp speed. They'd had to make three hops before settling into warp and it was nearing their thirty-sixth hour on board the craft. Sighing, she glanced over at Armitage to see him picking at a loose thread on his jacket, clearly just as board as she was. "Did you give yourself a hand?"

Armitage glanced over at her, "what?"

"A hand," she held up her hand before making a crude gesture, "did you help yourself out earlier?" He shot her a disgusted look and turned away from her, looking anywhere but her direction. "Don't be so shy, Armitage," she teased him, "everyone does it—it's only natural right? So, did you?"

"Stop talking."

"Since you're so grumpy still, I'll take that as a no." She swiveled her chair around, "do you want me to help you out?"

"No!" He stared at her, wide eyed as she smirked at him with a teasing smile, "Abso-bloody-not!"

"Only joking," she waved him off, "I'm not that desperate."

He scoffed at her as she pushed herself out of the chair and wandered about the small cabin of the cruiser. It had a small refresher, sleeping quarters, an even smaller galley, and several areas for seating. "We could stop,' she offered him moments later as she eyed the navigational chart on the monitor in front of her, "I know a nice place on—"

"No." Armitage's voice was final and Alexandria knew better than to continue on.

She spent the next few hours reading over a datapad, trying to understand one of the newest holo-romance out, and overall, doing her best to not bother Armitage. It wasn't until they were nearing hour forty-eight on board together that she reclaimed her seat beside him and sighed, "tell me about the base."

"You'll be there in less than a day."

"But tell me about it," She pestered him, "tell me about the people—what do you do all day?"

For a moment, Armitage could see the young girl he had met all those years ago. The young girl with big curly hair, big blue eyes, and a mind filled with possibilities and wonders. But gone was her innocence, the galaxy had treated her harshly and while the big blue eyes were still the same, her hair was less curly and beneath her playful exterior, he could see her pain. "I command the 'special project,' we've been working on lately," Armitage found himself telling her, "I make sure that the people we've put in charge are doing their job. I'm on the strategy boards as well as the a member of the High Command. We—" he stopped as if he remembered who he was talking to, "I can't say anymore."

Alexandria nodded in understanding, "and the people?"

"Stormtroopers," Armitage nodded, "so, force knows who's behind all those masks, really. Thank kriff I'm not in charge of them."

"Who is?"

"The Captains," Armitage answered, "one of our captains is the absolute best—Phamsa."

"Captain Phasma," Alexandria noticed the subtle lift of Armitage's lip as he thought about the captain. She stretched her leg out and nudged his foot with her own, "are you sweet on her?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not!" Alexandria laughed, "I was just asking a question, your face seems to like her."

Armitage turned back to his console darkly and Alexandria rolled her eyes, "alright, alright, I won't say anything else. Who else is there? Anyone important?"

Armitage wasn't ready to unwrap the can of crazy that was Ren, so he settled for a simple, "no."

"Dull," she sighed unhappily, "any gossip?"

"It's not a school, Townes." Armitage frowned at her, "there isn't time for that."

"Fine," she rolled her eyes, "I'll figure it out when i get there then."

Another several hours passed and after they slept in shifts, Armitage took the controls to guide them into the base. He spoke with control for several seconds, clarifying who he was and who was with him. He gave over landing codes and after being provided with the "clear to land," he did just that.

The first thing Alexandria noticed about the planet is that it was covered in snow. Snow so white that it blinded her. The second was that in the middle of the blinding snow covered planet was a man made metal structure, that she assumed went deep underground. Armitage opened the ramp with a press of the button near the door and moments later they were walking down and onto the landing pad. A team of stormtroopers led them, as well as an individual dressed in black, winter clothing. "General," he saluted Armitage and then nodded to her, "right this way."

"I have to go in for a debriefing," he explained to her once they were inside the base, the long metal hallways seeming to stretch for miles, "this is Lieutenant Mitaka, he'll show you to your quarters."

"Ma'am…?" She nodded to Armitage before following the waiting lieutenant. They walked in silence, the young officer only speaking after they had taken the lift down to a level she was sure was several hundred feet underground and stopped in front of a metal door in a hallway filled with similar doors. "This is your quarters." He told her as he pressed his code into the keypad, "you'll be able to reset the code in the data pad, but for now it's 7-2-1-4."

The doors opened with a loud _woosh_ and she couldn't help but look around the small apartment. It had a small galley kitchenette, a cozy living room with a holoscreen, and a riser off to the side with a double bed resting on it. There was also a door off the side that she assumed led to the refresher. Alone and curious, Alexandria padded around the square room, running her hand over the smooth black leather of the couch and the soft gray comforter on the bed. The bed would easily fit two people, although she would be lying if she said she wasn't excited to sleep in a bed this large alone.

Her bed back on Coruscant was only a small single bed, which she inherited from an acquaintance during a trade. Before that, she'd slept on a pile of blankets and an old pillow and before that—well, there was the ground. She turned her head darkly, not wanting to dwell on her past as she moved into the kitchen. A caf machine was set up and she found a few cups and plates, an equally small replicator was built into a hidden compartment in a cabinet. The small machine was designed for personal use, really only big enough to produce meals for one person—two at best. It was a newer model, and the young woman took her time to study the buttons and the text, she hadn't seen a replicator in years and she was curious on the advancements that had been made to its technology.

A thorough investigation of the holo-television was next and after discovering that there were only about twenty channels, with ten of them being ridiculous holo-dramas. Two were base wide news programs, and she didn't bother looking over the remaining eight. Sitting on the couch, she tapped her fingers against the leather, deep in thought. It'd been awhile since she'd done a job for someone with this much money and although they were still fairly new to the galaxy, she could already tell the First Order would be powerful. You didn't give a known vigilante a guest room this nice. Her shoulders tensed and she instantly turned her head, her eyes zeroing in on the lamp resting on the bedside table beside the bed. Slowly, she pushed herself up to her feet and crossed the room, making sure to step lightly. She gently pressed the button above the lamp to turn it on, the soft color lighting up the light gray wall.

Alexandria fell to her knees a moment later, her head tilting back to get a good angle on the lamp shade. A more modern model, the shade was firmly attached to both the lamp stand and the wall, preventing her from pulling it off. Her eyes scanned the bulb and head before she spotted the very small, very _hidden_ bug. With an irritated roll of her eyes, she reached up and snapped it off the inside lamp shade with her finger nail. Rolling it between her fingers, she stared at the circular bug for a few seconds, trying to decide what to do with it. Getting to her feet, she carried the bug quietly over to the round glass table, placing it down before sliding into a chair. With her bottom lip pulled between her teeth, she inwardly debated for a handful of seconds on what to do before a slow, wicked smile formed across her lips. If they were going to play with her, she was most certainly going to play with them.

Across the base, Armitage Hux found himself entering a large room with a long table. Monitor walls were flickering on either side of the table, but he ignored the images as he took a seat at the table. Captain Phasma was already seated a few chairs away, her helmet still tightly fitted to her head and she simply acknowledged his presence with a small nod. A few other lieutenants and captains were also seated at the table, all dressed in their proper uniforms. He engaged with brief small talk with them, answering few questions until the door slid open with a wheeze and Kylo-Ren stepped in.

Dressed in head to toe black armor, complete with his own helmet, he didn't bother with greetings before taking a seat across from the general. They hadn't really gotten on so far. Ren had only been with the First Order for eighteen short months, and Armitage already resented his quick rise to commander. He wasn't sure what Snoke saw in the Knight of Ren, or really _any_ of the helmet wearing 'hero's' but apparently there was something exceptional about him and the other Knights that Snoke saw. Armitage only wished he were privy enough to know it also.

Ren didn't greet anyone or answer any questions and the entire room turned silent as he took his seat at the table. Armitage had just started to wonder why he was even here when the door opened again and Mitaka stumbled in. "Is she in her cabin?" Phasma was the first to speak, her uninterested robotic voice filling the area. She had things to do and sitting around a table all afternoon, listening to a girl wander about her quarters wasn't high on the list.

"She is," Mitaka scrambled for his own seat, "FN-2187, one of our newest troopers to move up to the FN Corps, is standing guard outside her door."

"Lovely," Armitage drawled uninterested, lifting a hand he pressed a button on the table in front of him to unmute the speakers in the room. They'd planted a bug in her quarters, just to see what she would do with some time left to herself. Would she try to hack the holo-television? They'd had one specialist in already who had tried to do just that. While not many were aware of their presence in the Galaxy, they also couldn't be too careful about those with opposite viewpoints trying to stop their forming regime. Although, Armitage had his credits on her just trying to leave the room, however as they listened to her move around her room, he realized she was just looking around.

The sounds of someone exploring filled the room and it wasn't until she had started in on minute ten of watching a holodrama that Kylo-Ren let out an exasperated sigh, his voice distorted from the mask, "are we really going to sit here and listen to her watch one of those ridiculous things?"

Armitage glanced down the table at General Samanda, who was in charge of the communication systems. It had been her bright idea to listen in on any outside hired help before allowing them access to the rest of the base. "Well…" Armitage could tell she wasn't sure what to do as she shifted nervously in her chair, "...yes?"

Ren huffed and Armitage could see his right gloved hand twitch anxiously, it wouldn't be much longer before the masked man lost his ever rising temper and more than likely destroyed something in this room. That had certainly been a surprise, the first time Ren stomped into a control center and destroyed his first console. Armitage had a temper of his own, but Ren's was unlike anything he's ever experienced before—including that of his own father. "This is extremely dull," Phasma sighed as they listened to her flip through channels. It wasn't until the voices from the television stopped that they all perked up.

Silence filled their ears and Armitage found himself growing nervous. Silence with Alexandria wasn't a good thing, it meant she was thinking, which meant a whole world of things could occur. He had visions of her escaping through an air duct or wiring the caf machine to send out a distress signal. She was still armed with a blaster, and although they had an army, she'd still manage to do some damage before they leveled her. "Do you think she's sleeping?" Mitaka whispered, as if she'd hear them speaking.

"No," Armitage found himself voicing before he had thought it over, "she doesn't sleep very often."

Everyone turned to look at him, including the two humans with helmets. He could feel his ears reddening at what they could all possibly be thinking now. However, when he heard the gentle _click_ of the bedside lamp turning on, he felt his blood run cold. She'd found it and he knew she'd be furious.

"Wha—" Mitaka's question was cut off as a very loud, very _risqué_ sound filled the room.

The high pitch breathy gasp made his ears turn even redder. A few more moans filled the room and Armitage leaned forward to press his face into his hands when she continued, " _Oh! That's it!"_ A very loud, orgasmic moan came next and Armitage didn't bother lifting his head up, as he knew everyone would be sitting around open mouthed.

"Is she—" Mitaka was absolutely flustered, "how...who…?"

The next sound that came from the device was a very sharp, very distinct noise of a blaster going off.

General Samanda was on her feet quickly, leading the group down the hall. She wasn't stupid enough to shoot herself, but Armitage had a leading suspicion that she'd just shot General Samanda's bug to hell. He followed slowly, knowing Alexandria would be right pissed with him as soon as she saw him. He'd asked her here, begged her to help him only for her to find out they were spying on her. They took the winding hallways down to the lift, where they road it down to level fifteen. FN-2187, dressed in the typical trooper armor, was standing in front of her door, knocking against the steel door.

"Move over," Armitage grunted as he moved passed the others and the stormtrooper before pressing in the override code to the doors she had so obviously locked down. The group of people, minus Kylo-Ren, who had decided he had better things to do, entered into the small apartment. Alexandria stood beside the glass dining table, her fingernails drumming in irritation against the surface. As he suspected, Samanda's bug was sitting on the floor, in hundreds of tiny pieces.

"That was my bug!" General Samanda didn't appear to care about protocol as she stared open-mouthed at what had once been a fairly high-tech listening device, "you _shot_ my bug?"

"Yeah," Alexandria rolled her eyes as she waved the blaster, which was still resting in her right hand, around, "I did. Someone want to explain to me what in the _kriff_ is going on here?" Her blue eyes turned to Armitage, who stood in the back with his arms folded, "Armitage? Perhaps you have a lovely explanation?"

"It's just protocol," he replied, "it's nothing to be concerned about, we do this to all of our—hired help."

"Great." Sarcasm dripped from her words and she tossed the blaster onto the glass table, rattling it unhappily as she ran her right hand down her face, "now that we're done playing around, can I see the documents?"

Everyone exchanged looks, except for Phasma, who was out in the hallway providing her newest recruit with instructions, "Yes," Armitage spoke first, after seeing everyone nodded affirmatively, "I'll show you to the archive room."

Alexandria didn't bother with holstering her blaster and instead followed Armitage out of the room. Everyone appeared to be going their own ways, with Armitage leading Alexandria back down the hall towards the lift.

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Please Review! :)


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: Thank you all for the amazing reviews, please continue to do! :)

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Chapter Four

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Over a steaming cup of caf, Alexandria sat at one of the reading tables, staring down at the datapad in front of her. She'd been told numerous times that the datapad, which held all of the documents that the First Order had recovered from the Imperial Archives, was not to leave their library unless Armitage or another high-ranking official checked it out. So, here she sat, reading over each and every word. It was written in an archaic language, much older than the Empire or its Imperial Era. As she scrolled curiously through the thousand-page document, she wondered if it was even older than the Republic. Parts of the document were already translated, words from the Basic language scribbled above jumbled piles of letters.

Leaning back in her chair, she wondered who had tried to translate these documents. Had it been recent? Was it during the Empire's reign? Or perhaps during the time of the Republic? Lifting her eyes from the datapad, she allowed them to refocus on an object further away, taking in the scene of the library before her. It was filled with shelves of datapads and scrolls, each one arranged by date. The First Order's archivist, a woman by the name of Nonnie, sat behind a large oval-shaped desk. She hadn't been too pleased when Armitage had granted Alexandria access to the area and she'd been even more unhappy when she found out that Alexandria was here to translate the document. She'd protested weakly that it was _her_ job to do the translating, but Armitage had simply waved her away and led Alexandria over to the place the documents were. Filed away at the beginning of the Empire's reign, just after the fall of the Jedi, was where the documents lived.

However, as Alexandria eyed the shelves in curiosity, she decided to do a bit of exploring. She left the datapad on the glass table but picked up her cup of caf before walking up and down the numerous aisles. She eyed each identifier, moving passed the Imperial section and into the Republic. None of the titles or explanations seemed to catch her eye, so she continued further down. Eventually, she came to a stop in the Old Republic section, scanning the very sparse titles. Although she knew they had kept records at the time, with the galactic war and the constant level of unrest before that, she'd be surprised if many had survived. She had just lifted a data scroll off the shelf with a throat cleared. Turning her head she saw Nonnie standing there, dressed in her standard black uniform and her arms folded across her chest, "no liquids near the shelves."

Alexandria didn't bother hiding the roll of her eyes as she walked a few steps away from the shelves and placed her cup down onto the table, hard. With a cocky lift of her eyebrows, she wandered back to the scroll, grasping it firmly in her hand. Nonnie only 'hmphed' before turning on her heel and clacking back towards the archive desk. "She'd be an old hag if she weren't just a few years older than me," Alexandria mumbled to herself, unrolling the scroll. The words dissolved across the data screen and she slowly scanned them. Although she wasn't looking to translate the text, her overactive brain did just that. She'd never been able to understand why, and for as long as she could remember, she'd always been able to do it—translate anything, that is. Even as a young girl, Alexandria could remember staring up at the trading post signs and reading the various languages with ease. She understood virtually every known language and she could read the unfamiliar words easily, translating them as she read. It had driven her grandmother crazy and all of her tutors had also been unhappy with her quick learning. They'd asked her to stop, even going so far as to send her to a medic to make sure she wasn't ill, but none of it had worked. She couldn't turn it off, she couldn't stop it. Her brain was always moving, always translating. Even if it was a sign or a document she had read _years_ ago, at night, when all was quiet, her brain would go back and translate it, rerunning the letters to make sense of it all.

It was awful really—living with a 'gift' that she not only couldn't turn on and off but a gift that no one understood. She'd found things in the past that helped slow the activity in the brain, drugs and physical contact being the two most effective options, but she'd sense tried to wean herself off of both. The drugs had gotten expensive and the sex had gotten complicated; perhaps she was just better off sober and alone, dealing with this horrible situation as best she could. After realizing the scroll didn't have any similar features to the document she was working on, she rolled it back up and tossed it onto the shelf. She continued down the aisles, searching for anything that stood out to her, but nothing did and the First Order didn't have any texts that dated back to the dark ages just yet.

She pulled the thin, rectangular device out of her pocket and flipped it open, scrolling through to find Armitage's own comm number. She'd been issued a communicator last week after Armitage had tried and failed to find her all day. Along with the communicator, she'd also been given a set of clothes, which basically consisted of several pairs of pants, skirts, and leggings, all of which followed the black and gray motif, as well as a few dark colored tunics and shirts, a set of sleep clothes and some shoes. Armitage had been careful not to give her anything with the First Order insignia, as she had already warned him twice already she wasn't part of the First Order. Armitage answered his own communicator a few moments later, " _What_?"

"Why do you always answer like that?" Alexandria walked over to her deserted cup of caf and pulled it to her lips for a sip, "do you not want to talk to me, Armitage?"

"What do you want?"

She sighed unhappily and leaned against the table, vaguely aware of Nonnie's disapproving glance, "I'm stuck," She explained, "with the document, I mean—I've reached a part that I'm finding difficult to translate. I just keep reading through the same line over and over again, but it's not making any sense—it's too jumbled, like it's a mixture of tongues or something."

"And how am I supposed to help with that?" Armitage asked as he rested a hand on his hip, "that's why you're here."

"Watch the tone," Alexandria warned, "I'm here out of the kindness of my heart, remember?"

Armitage sighed tiredly, "what do you want me to do about it?"

"Do you have _any_ other texts?" She asked, "I need something old—something that would date back past the Republic. This document is old, or at least, the person who wrote it is. I need to find the language that matches, I can't translate it until I know which language it is."

Armitage was silent for several seconds, "there _might_ be a few other texts," he eventually said, "I'll check around and get back to you."

She didn't bother with a goodbye, as the General had already disconnected. Alexandria walked back over to her table, picked up the datapad and returned it back to its place on the shelf before exiting the library. Nonnie didn't bid her good day and Alexandria didn't bother with any sort of exit greeting either. Needing a break and hoping to find a way to turn her brain off, Alexandria wandered the halls curiously. The various levels all held interesting things, from conference rooms to command centers to engineering holes, the base seemed to have everything. Although her access pass didn't allow her into all of the areas on the base, she did have quite a bit of free reign.

It wasn't until she had finished exploring Deck 12 that she realized the cantina on the base was now open and serving lunch. The stormtroopers all typically ate in the cantina, during their assigned break time. Armitage told her she was allowed to request her meals in her room, or somewhere else on the ship, like the library, but she'd opted to continue eating in the public room. Aside from her banter with Armitage, or her passive aggressive words with Nonnie, meal time was really the only time she was around people. From what she understood, there were two cantinas on base. The first was on Deck 9 and was only for officers or other high-ranking officials. The second was on Deck 20 and was for all of the troopers and support staff. She'd been given access to both, although Armitage highly recommended she choose the one on Deck 9, over the one on Deck 20. So, she followed his suggestion for now and stepped into the larger common area on Deck 9 several minutes later.

Men and women dressed in all black were scattered around the tables, all eating or quietly talking. Armitage wasn't around, he never was. He didn't eat lunch and he much preferred to take his evening meal in his quarters where he relaxed with a holo-drama and a glass of wine. Although, if you asked him about it, he would deny every bit of it. Lieutenant Mitaka was seated at one of the rounder tables, chatting animatedly with General Samanda when she walked in. She waved to them both and although Samanda was still a little bitter about Alexandria shooting her bug last week, she still gave her a small nod.

After Alexandria went through the line, receiving a bowl of soup and a piece of bread, she wandered around the tables. Did she want to sit beside Mitaka and be bored to tears about a story he'd read in yesterday's galactic tabloid? Or did she want to sit with Captain Thomas and risk the older man trying to look down her shirt or touch her knee? As she was about to move back towards Mitaka, Captain Phasma waved her over.

She'd only seen Phasma in the cantina once before, and she'd only been in long enough to talk to one of the other Generals, grab a piece of fruit, and leave. "Come sit," this was the first time she'd seen Phasma without her helmet, and she couldn't help but stare. Phamsa, who she already knew was a woman, had short platinum blonde hair that was cropped close to her face with intelligent brown eyes. She appeared to be trying to read the younger woman as Alexandria pulled out a chair and took a seat across from her.

"Hello," Alexandria wasn't afraid of Phasma, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't a little cautious around her. The woman was tall, a few inches above six feet and she had the attitude to go with it. Phasma was a bad bitch, and no one was going to mess with her, including Alexandria Townes.

"Hello," Phasma had an accent similar to Armitage's posh core accent, although, based on how she spoke, Alexandria knew she wasn't from a core planet. Alexandria awkwardly lifted a spoonful of soup into her mouth, vaguely aware of Phasma watching her as she did so, "Hux says you're from Coruscant?"

"Yes." Alexandria nodded, "I've been there for about a decade now."

"How does a Pamarthen end up on Coruscant?" Phasma asked curiously.

"Well," Alexandria leaned back in her chair, "It's a lovely planet really…"

Phasma snorted and Alexandria chuckled softly, "I left Pamarthe when I was eighteen," she shrugged, "planet hopped all the way down to Coruscant, I suppose."

"Interesting." Phasma gently rolled her spoon around her own steaming soup, "why?"

"When you're not welcome, you don't hang around," Alexandria mused as she rested an elbow on the table, "I guess you could say the world I find myself living in has more enemies than friends."

"A life of crime, you mean."

Alexandria shrugged, rolling her head back and forth, "I suppose that depends on your viewpoint. It doesn't seem like a life of crime to me."

"Theft, forgery, spice trade, prostitution…" Both women knew Phasma could go on, it was obvious the captain had done her research and read over Alexandria's ledger.

"I'd like it noted in my file that _I_ wasn't a prostitute," Alexandria tried to quirk a smile to lighten the mood, "I just did some contract work for one of the larger rings."

"Mhmm." Phasma took a bite of her own meal, "how long do you think you'll hang around here?"

"I promised Armitage I'd stick around long enough to translate the documents," Alexandria shrugged. "So, however long that takes, I suppose."

Phasma nodded but didn't ask any more questions the rest of their lunch and Alexandria didn't bother asking any more of her own.


	5. Chapter Five

A/N: Thank you all for the feedback! Sorry for the delay! Enjoy and review!

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Chapter Five

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Alexandria woke in her quarters the next day, much like she did every day. The room was dark and after calling for the lights to turn on, she made her way through the room to make a cup of caf. It wasn't until she was reading over one of the Galaxy news publications that she realized she had a message blinking on her personal data pad. The young girl padded over to it and accepted it to see Phasma had invited her down to the lower training levels. 'To work off the high-carb dinners they've been serving us lately.'

Alexandria was nowhere near obese and was probably closer to underweight, as food on Coruscant was sometimes scarce, but she appreciated Phasma's invitation and becoming familiar with someone other than Hux was always a plus. After drowning her cup of caf and changing into clothes that would be more comfortable to run in, she made her way out of her quarters and to the lift down the hall. Various members of the First Order moved around, jumping on and off the lift as she rode it down to the lower levels of the base. The base itself had forty-two levels, with the last five being for engineering only. The ten before that were only for the troopers, and the two above that were medical decks, with the cantina being five levels above that. However, as she descended down to deck twenty-four, she stepped out in a hallway she hadn't been in before.

She noticed a few doors with signs marking the different genders, and at the end of the long hallway were two double doors. The set of doors led her into a large arena, sectioned off with smaller training rooms. "This is where we train our troopers," Phasma's voice echoed across the empty room and Alexandria turned around to see Phasma completely out of her uniform and dressed in a pair of tight black leggings and a black long sleeved shirt, "or at least, our officers. Each of the trooper levels have their own training rooms for every-day work, but our final tests happen here."

"It's big," Alexandria lifted her eyes to look around the room, "huge actually."

"It's designed for intense sessions," Phasma didn't bother elaborating on the types of sessions held in here and Alexandria didn't ask, "there are smaller rooms too, if you ever want to work by yourself. Some of them have cardio equipment and others have strength machines."

"What am I training for?"

"You're not training—this is for your health." Phasma picked up a long, metal rod and held it out, "plus, Hux says you're scrappy—and I'm intrigued."

"I'm not so sure I like the word scrappy—also, are you flirting with me?" Alexandria reached for the metal rod, only to have it flipped around, electric wires flying out of both ends as Phasma shocked each of her shins, sending her straight to the ground.

"You're not my type," Phasma lifted an eyebrow as she hovered over Alexandria, "and I don't typically go for the 'scrappy' ones either." The taller woman looked at Alexandria pointedly, as the shorter of the two women stared up at her from the training mat in a bit of a daze.

Alexandria swore in her mother tongue as the pain shot up her legs and Phasma retracted the electrified wires into the metal rod, before leaning against it, "cheap shot."

"Because war is fair," Phasma rolled her eyes, "on your feet."

"My legs are still numb."

"Walk it off," Phasma shrugged, "let's go." Alexandria got to her feet and did as she was told, swearing every few feet in Phasma's direction as the tingling and numbing sensation began to wear off. With both of her hands resting on her hips, Alexandria walked around in small circles as Phasma watched, "you're from Pamarthe...did you have any training as an adolescent?"

"I'm a good shot," Alexandria replied back over her shoulder as she stretched out her lower limbs, "can run pretty fast—pretty good pilot…" She shot a cocky grin over towards Phasma, "pretty great lay."

"Alright," Phasma rolled her eyes, a bit of humor laced in her tone, "I thought the rumor was Pamarthen's were good at—"

"We are." Alexandria rolled her shoulders back, "but I can't say I was ever trained with an electrified metal rod."

"Wanna try again?"

"Are you going to hit me with that thing again?"

"If you're too slow—yes."

Alexandria only wrinkled her face, "then I guess I shouldn't be slow."

The next hour passed by much of the same, Alexandria had a few upper hand moments with Phasma and managed to shock her on the shoulder once, but for the most part Phasma dominated Alexandria in their metal rod battle. "I'm not having any fun!" Alexandria exclaimed from her place sprawled out on the mat, staring up at the metal ceiling with bright lights, "this isn't fun, Phasma." Currently her left leg was numb and screaming for relief, as Phasma had landed two quick electrified hits to her leg, one to her thigh and one to her ankle, "when you said come down to the training room, I thought maybe we'd run a bit."

Phamsa barked out a loud laugh from her position a few feet away. She had a cool towel wrapped around her shoulders as she panted lightly from their last round. Although Phasma was ten times better than Alexandria, the younger and shorter woman still managed to give Phasma a bit of a work out. "Or I don't know," Alexandria continued with her dramatics as she pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, "gossip about who's the best in bed on base."

"What in the Galaxy is going on in here?" Alexandria dropped her hands to see Armitage Hux had just stepped into the training room, dressed in his standard uniform as he stared at the two women, "one of the troopers said they heard screaming?"

Phasma nodded pointedly towards Alexandria and Alexandria only huffed in annoyance, "I wasn't _screaming_. Just violently cursing."

"Why are you on the floor?"

"My leg is asleep."

"Why…" Armitage lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "and why is your leg asleep…?"

"Phasma tortured me."

Phasma laughed and rested both of the metal rods back against the padded wall, "we were working out, Hux."

"Why?"

"Health," Alexandria rolled onto her knees, pushing herself up so her backside rested on her heels, "Phasma says you think I'm scrappy."

"She just needs to gain a bit of muscle," Phasma explained further as Hux glanced over at the tall and toned blonde, who he had to physically stop himself from looking up and down, "and with this high-carb diet, we could all use a little exercise."

"I see." Armitage glanced over at Alexandria who was staring up at him curiously, clearly having caught the shift that he had hoped no one had, "you should get to work." Phasma waved him off and Alexandria rolled her eyes as the feeling returned in her legs and she got to her feet, stretching out her now sore limbs, "meet me in the library in an hour."

They both watched Armitage leave the room and Alexandria started to help Phasma clean up before the girls moved back down the hallway towards one of the doors with their gender written across it, "how long have you known Hux?"

"Too long." Alexandria followed Phasma into the common washroom, which held several showers and changing rooms, as well as metal lockers for them to store things in, "I believe we met right after I left Pamarthe. He's been a nice ally to have." She paused and glanced over at Phasma as she unwrapped bandages around her hands, "how long have you known him?"

"I know General Hux." Phasma corrected her, "and I've known him for about two years now." Alexandria was picking up on something, but she wasn't quite sure what it was yet, "are you two...you know…"

"What?" Alexandria frowned deeply, "oh! No! No, no, no. No. We have not and will not be anything more than allies...perhaps friends one day if Armitage stops fighting it."

Phasma laughed softly and Alexandria walked over to a bench to remove her shoes, "why?"

Phasma didn't respond and instead busied herself with shedding her clothes and stepping into one of the waiting showers. Alexandria pulled her own top off, leaving her in her leggings and bra before walking over to the shower. She pulled back the frosted glass door and Phasma let out a very uncharacteristic squeak as Alexandria rested a hand on her hip, "are you interested in Armitage?"

"Can we not talk about this when I'm naked and in the shower?" Although not shy, Phasma reached for the door handle and brought the door closed once more.

"You didn't answer my question," Alexandria tapped her index finger against the door, "do you have a thing for the Ginger General?"

"Now you sound like Ren." Phasma grunted her reply as she washed her hair, "piss off, m'showering."

"Who's Ren?"

"Kylo-Ren?" Phasma asked as Alexandria pulled off her leggings, leaving her in her in just her underwear, "the Commander?"

"Commander?" Alexandria only continued to frown, "have I met him?"

"If you have to ask, you haven't." Phasma replied, "consider yourself lucky. He doesn't like to play nicely."

"...is that a euphemism for something…?"

"No!"

After a quick shower and a failed attempt to find out more about Phasma's intriguing thoughts about the General and this mysterious Commander, Alexandria found herself walking into the library nearly an hour later. Although, Alexandria should have known the tall and lean General would have been waiting for her. He had his arms folded across his chest as he stood in the center of the library, staring at the entrance. "You look uncomfortable," Alexandria observed as she came to a stop in front of Armitage, whose body language had yet to change, "are your shoes too tight?"

"Why are you bothering Phasma?" Armitage hissed quietly, in order to keep their conversation more private in the quiet area, "she has a job to do—we all have a job to do, including you. There isn't time to slack off or fool around, do you understand?"

Alexandria searched Armitage's face for any kind of explanation on the General's sudden wave of frustration. At first she thought he was just ruffled from her spending time with his obvious crush, but now she could plainly see that it was something else, something more than a simple attraction. "What's going on?"

"I need these documents, Townes," Armitage ignored her question as he pointed to the table where he'd already gone about checking out the correct data pads, "we have deadlines and a mission to plan and it all revolves around what these documents say."

Alexandria watched Armitage's pale finger press into the table beside him for emphasis before her eyes drifted over to the blank data pad, the screen resting for now. "Alright," the word came out slowly as Alexandria glanced back at Armitage's distraught face, "I'll get it translated, I didn't realize spending an hour downstairs would be—"

"Of course you didn't," Armitage hissed and Alexandria lifted a warning finger to him as he took a step closer to her, "you've never underst—"

"I'm helping you, Armitage," Alexandria warned him, "now leave so I can get this finished and get the kriff off this frozen rock." Armitage watched as Alexandria lifted the data pad off the table and stormed away from him and over towards one of the reading pods across the room. With a quick glance over at the reference desk, he could see Nonnie watching them closely, but the woman quickly turned her attention back to her own data pad once she realized the General was looking over at her.

Armitage inhaled sharply before releasing it slowly, his own shoulders releasing some of the tension he'd built up after his last meeting with the Supreme Leader. It felt like a million thoughts were running through his head and while part of him wanted to talk to Alexandria more, he knew they were both far too agitated to have a civil conversation. Instead, the General took his leave and he headed out of the library and down the hall before he stepped onto the awaiting lift, the doors closing in front of him only a few seconds later.


	6. Chapter Six

A/N: Guess who finally meets in this chapter? :)

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Chapter Six

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Alexandria slipped her hands inside the pockets of the jacket she had just shrugged on, the base kept the temperature cool in order to prevent sickness and combined with the cool air and underground levels, Alexandria's hands felt like the dry icy ground outside. She did her best to bring blood flow back to her hands, flexing her fingers and opening and closing her hands as she paced around the library. It was nearly 02:00 and Nonnie had long ago left her with a strict warning to document every data pad she even so much as looked at. Alexandria had promised, but they both knew she wouldn't.

Wanting to also bring blood flow back to her stiff legs, Alexandria took a few laps around the outer edge of the large room, eyeing various shelves as she passed by. The library was a decent size, filled with bookcase after bookcase of various documents and data pads, all of which she wondered where and _who_ they had come from. Although the First Order's collection was impressive, she did wish it was larger. The brick wall she'd hit when it came to translating the documents was starting to frustrate her and she desperately wished she could find something in a similar tongue. Anything that would help her figure out which language it was written in. Sighing deeply, she had just started to debate whether or not to go to bed when she spotted a curious looking scroll, sticking out of the shelf lazily. Taking a turn to walk down one of the aisles, she eyed the other scrolls on the shelves before realizing that one was misplaced. It was clearly supposed to be in the navigational section behind the desk, but instead it was laying haphazardly across a few texts about the history of the galaxy.

Alexandria didn't know Nonnie well at all, and to be honest she didn't care to, but she did know the meticulous woman wouldn't have allowed this to happen on her watch. Whoever had checked this out had not only put this in the incorrect place, but had also done so without Nonnie's ever watching eyes seeing. She picked up the thick scroll and unrolled it with a flick of her thumb, her eyes running back and forth across the faded paper. It was gibberish, really. None of it made any sense and if Alexandria hadn't done her time in the underbelly of the galaxy, she would have chalked it up to random doodling, but instead as her eyes drifted across the rough pages, she realized it was something more—a conversation of sorts.

She walked back towards one of the reading tables, her eyes never leaving the scroll as she did. It wasn't until she was seated at the table with the scroll in front of her that her brain started to process the strange letters and markings. It was automatic, her brain running like a computer as her eyes took in the information, allowing whatever mutation she had been born with to run through all of the languages she had ever seen, heard, or learned, trying to match it. Shifting in her seat, she brought her feet up under her backside as she leaned forward with her elbows resting on the table and her eyes moving back and forth rapidly, trying to take in as much as she could at once. It appeared to be a blend of languages, alternating back and forth between at least two—potentially three. She had just picked out Huttese, her brain was hung up on a few letters and words as she tried to recall any other translations she had ever done with the language, but the lingua franca was mixed with another language, one she didn't recognize immediately.

Her brain continued to run through her personal list of known languages as if it were a machine, narrowing down the list with the help of letter arrangements and accents above the letters. She'd already crossed off Jawaese and by extension the Jawa trade language, as well as her own native tongue, Pamarthen. Aqualish and Rodese were soon crossed off after. Briefly she hesitated, unsure if the first language was actually Rodese instead of Huttese, but after a few quick reads, she firmly decided on Huttese. It wasn't until Alexandria was up out of her seat, pacing as she racked her brain for any sort of familiarity with the text when she realized she'd been looking at it the wrong way—literally. The scroll wasn't written in a traditional sense, and instead the second writer had chosen to write upside down while also interjecting random letters from a handful of languages. After turning the scroll around, she stared down at the written words of the Mandalorian people.

It was clearly a conversation, and Alexandria tried to focus on the correct letters while also disregarding the others. It wasn't until she reached the second paragraph and realized she'd lost her place that she swiped a PADD off Nonnie's desk and went to work typing out the correct letters in order to make things easier. The conversation was turning heated as the two parties argued about following through with their orders even though one was concerned about the potential for growing suspicions. Although she would later question the placement of the scroll, what caught Alexandria's interest was the word "commander" as it was used repeatedly. It was clear that both parties were worried about their new commander discovering their plans—and they'd come up with a plan to sing a child's song in their heads anytime they were near him.

It wasn't long before she'd successfully translated the first three paragraphs, when the young woman felt her skin grow cold and her stomach drop. The conversation was cut off, as if it had either been interrupted or had yet to be continued—but very clear, as clear as the trademark snarl across Armitage's face, in rushed, sloppy script did she read the treasonous words.

Alexandria left everything on the table, aside from the borrowed PADD and the scroll, not caring what kind of fit Nonnie would have if she knew the items were leaving the library without her permission. She ran quickly down the hall, not stopping to answer the curious questions of the Stormtroopers in passing and even as she ran, she missed the concerned glance shared between two high ranking officers. The lift didn't feel as if it were moving quickly enough and with her haste she nearly bowled over one of the droids when the lift doors finally did open. Armitage's quarters weren't too far away from the lift and it was only a sharp turn and quick pivot until she was standing outside his cabin door, gasping for air. She pressed the button beside the door, holding her finger against it so in order to make sure Hux would answer the door. About forty-five seconds passed until the doors opened with a hiss, revealing General Armitage Hux. Armitage was dressed partially in his sleep clothes and partially in his uniform, the black coat quickly tossed over his First Order issued sleep shirt. His matching sleep pants were tucked into one boot and his ginger hair, which was almost always combed to perfection, stuck up unhappily in the back. Clearly, she'd roused him from his slumber.

"This. Had. Better. Be. Important." Armitage spoke to her through gritted teeth, his eyes flickering between her and the scroll and data pad in her hands as he tried to smash down his wild hair, "were you finally able to translate the documents?"

"Yes...erm...no," Alexandria almost winced at the cold glare Armitage sent her way as her chest heaved. Perhaps she was more out of shape than she thought she was, "but I found something—something else that I think you're going to want to take a look at."

Armitage took a step to the side and waved Alexandria in, the doors closing behind them once they were both inside Hux's quarters. His was a similar layout, but more spacious than her own. She eyed the door to the bedroom, realizing that instead of just having one large room, Armitage had a separate bedroom chamber. "Will you be telling me what you found tonight?" She turned her head to see the general leaning against the glass dining table in the room, his arms folded across his chest, "or am I supposed to guess?"

Alexandria let his poor attitude roll off her shoulders as she stepped forward and placed everything in her arms on the table. She swiped open the data PADD and unrolled the scroll, pressing her finger to it. "I found this in the library, teetering on one of the shelves. It has nothing to do with that section, or really anything in the library at all."

"And…?"

" _And_ , I don't know about you, but Nonnie doesn't seem like the kind of archivist to just let some random scroll sit on a shelf where it doesn't belong, do you?"

"No, I suppose not."

Alexandria watched Armitage uncross his arms and rest his hands on the back of the chair in front of him, staring at her intently. She took that as a sign to proceed, "so, I picked it up and unrolled it, looking over it to see why it was misplaced to begin with. At first, I thought it was an older navigational chart, if you read it from top to bottom it talks about various trading routes—however, if you turn it upside down," Alexandria paused long enough to do as she said, turning the scroll, "it is actually revealed as a note between at least two individuals, who are writing in code."

"Code?" Armitage's eyebrows were in his hairline, staring at her curiously, "What kind of code? What are they saying?"

"Well, they're discussing some sort of plan," Alexandria pointed out various words and symbols, loosely translating it so Armitage would understand, "and while it's choppy and a little rushed, you can definitely make out the last bit of it."

"And that would be…?"

Alexandria met Armitage's eyes, looking into the tired and agitated gaze that could only belong to the General. He looked older, much older than he had when they had first met, even if it was only a few years ago. Swallowing, Alexandria replied, "there's some sort of planned explosion," she began, her eyes searching Hux's face, "something called a 'thermal oscillator.'"

Armitage paled noticeably, looking even more sickly than usual, "what are you saying, Townes?"

"I'm saying you've got a problem, Armitage," Alexandria bit her lower lip, "from the text and subtext of this conversation, you've got a coup on your hands."

It was several minutes later when Alexandria found herself moving quickly down a hallway, doing her best to keep up with Armitage, the General's long legs allowing him to walk at a faster pace. The general's jaw was set hard as he stared straight ahead. After her bad news, he silently got ready for the day, combing his hair and changing his clothes before he grabbed her elbow and led her down the hall with a gruff, "c'mon."

Now, after taking the lift down a few floors to a level somewhere between Alexandria's and Armitage's, she couldn't help but wonder where—or rather, _who_ they were going to see. "Is Phasma's room down here?"

"Phasma is a captain," Alexandria was afraid Armitage might shatter a tooth or two, based on how hard his jaw was clenched, "and while I trust her opinion completely and have no reason to doubt her intentions, this matter is over her head."

Armitage came to a quick halt, causing Alexandria to knock into him with a surprised, "oof."

"Try to be more careful," Armitage grunted at her as he lifted a hand and jabbed his middle finger against the button out beside the door, "this is going to be an— _interesting_ meeting, alright?"

"Define interesting..."

"You'll see," Armitage warned her, "due try to keep the sarcasm under control, do you understand?"

Alexandria didn't have time to respond before the doors flew open with a hiss, leading them into a small vestibule, with steel gray walls and another panel of buttons. Armitage didn't move and once the first set of doors were closed, the second set opened. Armitage stepped into the large apartment first, with Alexandria moving slightly slower behind him. Her eyes were drawn to the spacious area—it appeared to have the same design as the quarters she and Armitage had, but it felt different. The kitchenette was larger, with more counter space and unlike the one she and Armitage had, this one had a small kitchen island. The table was also longer, with eight chairs around the glass rectangle, compared to Armitage's six and her four. Just beyond the kitchenette and dining area was the living room, complete with a black leather sectional in front of a large holo television, a matching glass coffee table in front of the couch.

A desk, complete with a data pad on a raised platform, sat behind the couch and off to the side were two sets of doors, one of which Alexandria assumed led to a bedroom. Judging by the size of the room, Alexandria assumed they were in the apartment of someone high up on the First Order list. Lost in thought as she observed the room before her, she nearly jumped out of her skin when the bedroom door opened with a quick hiss, revealing an extremely tall human.

He was so very tall, taller than Phasma even. With broad shoulders and narrow hips, he was dressed in all black, although, he looked as if he'd just thrown his clothes on. While he was dressed in all black, his skin was pale and his hair dark, hanging just over his ears in soft, slightly disheveled waves. Alexandria wasn't sure where to look, she wanted to observe his face, handsome from what she remembered upon first glance, but his gaze was so sharp—so piercing, she wasn't sure she should meet it again.

"What?" His voice was deep and firm, demanding. In any other situation or meeting, she would have thought it attractive—something about a deep voice always made the hair on the back of her neck stand to attention. When no one immediately responded to his barked question, his dark gaze flickered back and forth, first between Hux and Alexandria and then between Alexandria and the scroll she was holding.

"Alexandria Townes," Armitage motioned towards her as he placed her data pad down onto the glass dining table, "our hired translator."

Alexandria nodded slowly, her eyes finally lifting from what appeared to be a strong chest to his face. He was staring at her quizzically, as if he were studying not only her body language, but also her thoughts. Out of anxiousness, she licked her bottom lip, the cool, recycled air drying them out. She missed the way his eyes followed her tongue. "Surely there is a better time for introductions."

Alexandria watched Hux roll his eyes as he woke her PADD, sliding his fingers across it expertly. She watched Hux bypass her own pass code, "Townes is working on our recently acquired documents," Hux reminded him, "but in the process she's found something quite...alarming."

"Alarming." The man in black took a few steps forward, glancing over at her once more, taking her in from head to toe before his attention was back on the general, "what is so alarming that you rushed here at 03:00?"

Hux motioned towards Alexandria, his own eyes staying trained on her PADD, silently telling her to answer the question. "I found a scroll…" Alexandria ignored the look of impatience that passed over the man's face, "Do you know Nonnie? The archivist?" Alexandria was only met with silence. "It's alright, she's not that important. Long story short, this was misplaced and it shouldn't have been. When I opened it I ran through it, trying to figure out where and what it was—"

"It's 03:00, Translator." Alexandria lifted her eyebrows as the man before her spoke slowly, his voice remaining in the deep baritone it had started in. "I suggest you arrive at the point."

Alexandria unrolled the scroll completely, her thumb brushing its rough edge as she did so, "you've got a coup on your hands, _Sir_. Although, with how warm and welcoming it is here, I can't possibly imagine why."

Armitage sighed unhappily at her tone. He didn't think Ren would lose it in his own quarters, but having to make sure Alexandria wasn't accidentally maimed or seriously injured wasn't something he wanted to do right now. "There's talk of an explosion to the thermal oscillator," Hux took over, sliding the PADD down the table once he pulled it up to Alexandria's translations, "it appears that it's two diff—"

The handsome, intriguing, and irritating man before her held up his hand in order to hush Armitage, at which the general sighed unhappily, releasing oxygen slowly through his nose as he did so. Alexandria had seen Armitage interact with many different people, but never once had she seen him so tense. For several seconds there was only silence as the man across the table from them drug her PADD towards him with one finger, reading the translated text to himself. The only sounds filling her ears was Armitage's frustrated deep breaths and the sound of air moving through the vents. Her eyes lifted upwards towards the ceiling before coming back down to observe the apartment she stood in. She had just eyed a set of what appeared to be black leather gloves when the man in black turned his attention from the PADD to the scroll.

She watched him stare at it blankly, as if he were trying to figure out what languages were spoken, but based on the way his eyebrows lifted and his eyes drifted lazily across the page, she knew he couldn't read it. "You found this in the library?" His voice was still deep, but quieter now, curious even as he fingered the rough edge of it absentmindedly.

"Uh—yes."

"And you're certain that's what this says?"

"Yes?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

Armitage shifted beside her when his eyes rose up slowly from the scroll, holding her gaze, "I'm telling you."

"Would you bet your life on this translation?" He asked her, his eyes searching her face for any clue of betrayal or uncertainty.

"Yes."

His long fingers drummed thoughtfully on the glass table top beside the scroll, his eyes shifting back down at it, "shall I call a meeting?"

His long fingers stilled and his eyes flickered unhappily to Armitage, who had started to feel like a third wheel in the room, "why would we call a meeting?"

"Protocol states…"

"I have my own protocol, General," the man in black responded as he began to walk back towards the door he had initially entered the room from, "I'll meet you shortly." He disappeared through the doors, the steel closing behind him with a hiss.

Armitage sighed unhappily before he briefly rubbed his forehead, "let's go."

"Go?" Alexandria followed him out of the apartment, doing her best to once again keep up with his long legs, "go where? Who was that? What's going on?"

Armitage whirled around and Alexandria had to skid to a stop once again before her nose nearly touched his chest—something she hoped never to experience. "That was our new Commander—Kylo Ren. As for your other questions...that's for me to know, not you. I suggest you return to the library...after all, you still have work to do."

Alexandria stood there with wide eyes and her lips slightly parted as Armitage spun on his heel and started back in the direction of the lift—leaving his translator alone and confused in the cool hallway.


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

* * *

"Are all of our communication channels monitored?"

Phasma took a step aside as Alexandria walked uninvited into Phasma's quarters. Phasma, who had been in the process of stretching her overworked muscles simply closed the door behind her, "sure, come on in...make yourself at home."

Alexandria had already done so by flopping down onto the couch, "they are, aren't they?"

Phasma opted to remain standing, leaning against her kitchen counter as she did so, "our communications channels?"

"Yes," Alexandria huffed, squirming slightly under Phasma's intense gaze, "are our communications channels monitored? Like, all the time? Or just for keywords?"

"Why?"

Alexandria dramatically threw herself backwards on Phasma's couch, her hands coming up to wipe across her face, "Phas-ma!"

"What?" Phasma laughed softly, "you're asking me about our communications channels and you think you have the right to be frustrated with me?"

"I just…" Alexandria trailed off as she allowed her hands to land beside her as her shoulders deflated, "can you just answer the question? I won't do anything bad…"

"I was born at night, Townes," Phasma deadpanned, "but not last night—if you want an answer, you're going to have to tell me what's going on."

"But, I don't want to."

"Then," Phasma shrugged, "I can't help you. Perhaps Hux can answer your question."

"Ugh, no," Alexandria hadn't spoken to Armitage since that night a few weeks ago when he'd pulled her to Kylo Ren's room and been huffy with her in the hallway. She was both frustrated with the general and with not knowing what was happening after she'd brought the scrolls to his attention. She hadn't run across any other forms of secret communications since and she was dying to know if the general and commander had been able to find any other leads.

"Are you going to tell me why you're avoiding Hux?" Phasma arched a skillfully plucked eyebrow. She'd long ago noticed neither Hux nor Alexandria had made any effort in speaking to one another over the last few weeks, and while it didn't appear the general was avoiding Alexandria, it was pretty obvious Alexandria was avoiding him. "Did someone have too much wine and bump uglies?"

Alexandria stared at Phasma with a horrified look on her face, "I don't even like wine."

"I wasn't referring to you."

If Alexandria had been in a better mood, she may have given up on holding out for an apology just to interrogate Armitage on his drinking habits. "I think I may have just thrown up in my mouth a little," Alexandria blanched at Phasma's insinuation.

"Alright," Phasma sighed, turning their conversation around, "why do you want to know about the communication channels? Is it related to your translations?"

Alexandria knew if she said yes, they would definitely be listening in to her conversation and the last thing she wanted anyone to overhear was her personal conversation, "no."

"Then, what's it for?"

"It's—personal?"

"Personal?" Phasma lifted both of her eyebrows this time and Alexandria shifted uneasily, "a personal conversation? With whom?"

"Just...someone."

"Just someone," Phasma had never wanted children, but if she did, she imagined this is exactly how conversations with them might go. "Why are you so fidgety?"

"Phas-ma!"

"Why are you being difficult?" She laughed again, as Alexandria fell sideways and pulled one of Phasma's accent pillows over her face, "what's going on?"

"I'm...frustrated."

"Yes, I gathered that," Phasma had to strain to hear as Alexandria's voice was muffled from the pillow covering her face.

"No," Alexandria shook her head, the pillow rocking side to side as she did so, "I'm...frustrated."

"Alright…" Phasma liked talking to Alexandria, it was nice to be able to hold a conversation with another intelligent woman, but at times she really did want to just strangle her. "With Hux…?"

"No!" Alexandria groaned, "I'm frustrated, Phasma! I'm physically frustrated."

"This is just going around in circles," Phasma rubbed her forehead as she closed her eyes, breathing slowly through her nose as she did, "are you ill? Or…?"

"Stars, Phasma!" Alexandria ripped the pillow off her face as she stared at her wildly, "I'm sexually frustrated! There? Are you happy?"

Phasma's mouth formed an "O" as Alexandria flopped back onto the couch, pulling the pillow across her face again as she did, "I…" Phasma really was at a loss for words. Perhaps this is why she didn't bother befriending anyone else on base. She knew some of the nurses and kitchen staff gossiped about sex, perhaps Alexandria would be better suited befriending them. "And this has to do with the communication channels how…?"

"I'd like to call someone about my situation," Alexandra's muffled voice sounded, "and maybe get a bit of relief, if you know what I mean?" Phasma didn't. She'd had sex before, but it hadn't been romantic or personal and she certainly hadn't felt the need to have it again. Although, her dreams had featured a certain ginger haired man lately… The captain physically shook her head, refusing to go down that road, much less with Alexandria in her room. "...and I don't want the entire communications team listening to me try to get some, you know?"

"Alright," Phasma waved a hand in front of her face in order to try to end the conversation, "I get it."

"So, would they listen in?"

"Most definitely."

Alexandria tossed the pillow off her face and across the room, the plush square landing only a few feet away, "how about visitors? Do we allow visitors?"

"No."

"You're really not helping me here," Alexandria pushed herself into a sitting position, "who's the guy on base most of the girls go to then?" Phasma simply shrugged as Alexandria's frown deepened, "this has been a great conversation," she grunted unhappily, "we've really made some headway here."

"Sorry," Phasma laughed, "you could always—"

Phasma's commlink beeped demandingly on the glass table and she quickly crossed the kitchen to grab it, Alexandria watching with interest as she did so, "Phasma," she answered it.

"Is Townes with you?" Armitage almost sounded as frustrated as Alexandria felt, but she hoped it was for different reasons.

"Yes," Phasma glanced over at Alexandria.

"Can you please escort her up to security?"

"Sure," Phasma nodded and Armitage promptly hung up.

"Can they hear me?" Alexandria whispered as she lifted her eyes up to the ceiling, "am I in trouble?"

"No," Phasma rolled her eyes as she crossed her quarters to duck into the bedroom to change into her uniform, calling out as she did, "and I doubt it, that's too much paperwork."

It was only a handful of minutes later when Alexandria and Phasma stepped into the lift, Phasma expertly selecting their desired level. Because it was later in the evening, the lift was a highly trafficked area as various First Order officers and troopers stepped on and off as they road. About halfway to their destination, Alexandria found herself watching as one of the First Order sergeants stepped onto the lift and greeted Phasma. His voice, although distorted, seemed deep and Alexandria ran her eyes over his armor from behind. She tried to imagine what he would look like without it, her eyes focusing on the black pauldron covering his left shoulder. Someone with that rank had to be a little muscular...even if he was ugly, she could just close her eyes, right? Or get into the right position so she didn't even have to look at him—Alexandria eyed him a moment longer before the lift doors opened and he exited it seconds later.

"Is he attractive?" Alexandria asked Phasma once the doors had closed and the two were alone, "if I asked him to lie on top of me, would that be weird?"

"Yes." Phasma didn't even hesitate, her eyes rolling inside her helmet, "that would be very weird."

"I just want to feel the weight of a man," Alexandria and Phasma exited the lift a few moments later, walking down the identical corridor as they did, "you know? Just, the weight of a strong man on top…"

"Perhaps if you spent as much time on translating as you did envisioning yourself underneath a man, you'd be finished with the documents?"

Alexandria's jaw dropped as Phasma looked at her pointedly before entering in her security code for the door they found themselves in front of, "I'm wounded," Alexandria held her hand up over her heart, "and also a little proud of you. That was an excellent come back…"

Phasma only laughed as the door slid open with a woosh, the two women stepping in moments later. Armitage glanced over his shoulder from where he'd been sitting in front of a wall of monitors, his index finger curled over a dial. "Finally," Armitage drawled as he spun the dial around lazily, his eyes gliding across the various monitors as he did so, "Ren's on his way. Thank you for seeing her up here, I'll meet you at the briefing shortly."

Hux's comments seemed to be addressed to Phasma, so Alexandria only walked further into the dimly lit room, looking at the other monitor walls that Hux wasn't focused on while Phasma exited the office. She could see the live security feeds of the canteen, the training rooms, and a few hallways.

Before Alexandria could try to figure out what she was looking at or work up the courage to ask Armitage, the door opened again and in stepped the commander. Or at least, who Alexandra assumed was the commander. He was dressed in all black, and although she remembered him being fairly muscular, he looked even bulkier, appearing as if he had armor on. What caught her eye the most was his strange helmet, unlike any of the trooper helmets she'd seen so far. Hux didn't bother looking over his shoulder.

Luckily, Alexandria didn't have to stare at the shiny helmet for long. Once the doors had closed behind him, Kylo Ren flipped his hood back and lifted his helmet, the breathing apparatus automatically moving forward to allow him enough room to take it off. Even if Alexandria hadn't been in her frustrated state, she would have thought Kylo Ren's helmet removal was extremely attractive. He ran a hand over his hair as he did so, tossing his helmet not too carefully onto the counter Alexandria was leaning against. His dark eyes glanced over at her, eyeing her a moment longer than necessary before he took a few steps to stand behind Hux.

"What did you find?"

"One moment," was Hux's only response. However, their commander only

breathed unhappily through his nose, his eyes lifting upwards towards the ceiling.

"Is this about the coup?" Alexandria asked once the silence got to be a little much.

"Yes," Hux's drawl was a little on the edgy side, so stern it even caught the commander's attention as he glanced at Hux curiously. He really had no idea what the relationship between Hux and Alexandria was, but he hadn't expected there to be that much frustration in his reply. Curious, Kylo Ren angled his shoulders and glanced behind him at Alexandria, who he caught in mid eyeroll.

When she was finished, their eyes met and Kylo only lifted an eyebrow at her. She responded with another eyeroll and he turned his attention back to the monitors in front of him. It was only a few seconds later when Armitage found what he was looking for, stopping the dial and pressing a few buttons. All three adults watched two dressed stormtroopers walk down one of the corridors. It all looked normal until a third person, dressed in a hooded cloak, passed by the stormtroopers. Alexandria frowned as they eventually moved out of frame, unsure what she just saw.

"Can you…" Alexandria leaned forward, her eyes glued to the screen as Armitage turned the dial again, the figures in the recording moving backwards quickly. Armitage hit play again and they watched the video once more, although Alexandria still wasn't sure what she was looking at.

"Did you see it?" Armitage asked, "the man?"

Alexandria shook her head no, but before Armitage could do anything further, Ren grabbed the back of his chair and wheeled him away from the console. A moment later, another chair came rolling over and into Ren's open hand before he sat down and took over the controls. Armitage huffed unhappily, his frown deepening as Ren's fingers ran across the buttons.

Alexandria took that moment to look around the room wide-eyed, as if she were looking for a hidden fourth person. Had that chair rolled on its own into Kylo Ren's outstretched hand? Or had she just imagined it? She snuck a look at Armitage, but aside from his pissed off expression, he didn't seem to care as much as she did about what had just happened. Carefully, she ran a hand over her mouth, her eyes flickering around the room at the remaining empty chairs. Maybe Armitage's chair had bumped into the one the commander now sat in? Although her latest theory made no sense, seeing as how that chair had been clear across the room, Alexandria settled on that one for now as she bit her lip anxiously. She had a strong feeling that this hired job was not going to be as easy as she had thought it would be—especially if she had to deal with chairs moving on their own.

Armitage must've noticed her body language, as his head turned to look her over, taking in her now anxious expression. He frowned at her, his eyes moving quickly around the room in order to try to pinpoint what it was that had made her so uneasy, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Alexandria refused to look at Hux and instead continued to face forward as she silently willed her heartbeat to return to normal. They both watched as Ren worked the controls, rewinding and playing repeatedly until he began to roll through the footage frame by frame.

It wasn't until Ren had reached the 2700th frame did he pause, go back two frames and then pause again. Artimage squinted hard at the footage and Alexandria automatically took a few steps forward, hovering just a few steps away from the back of Kylo Ren's chair now. Ren rocked the dial back and forth, alternating between the two frames until he finally released a frustrated breath, "the footage has been altered."

"What?" Armitage was beside Ren now, attempting to reach for the dial but the commander refused to give up control, instead hitting a few buttons on the keyboard beside the dial until both frame number 2698 and 2699 were up side by side on the screen. Alexandria slipped her hands into the back pockets of her trousers, watching as Ren repeated his motions to show the unnaturally spliced frame that occurred just before the 2700th frame. "That can't be…"

Ren didn't say anything, instead he got to his feet and grabbed his helmet off the counter. Alexandria watched him with both caution and curiocity as he tapped a few buttons on his helmet and lifted it over his head—their eyes meeting briefly just before the helmet covered his face. "I'd say this leak as you so affectionately labeled it has sprung," Kylo Ren adjusted his gloves before taking two long strides towards the door, "let me know when you've realized our only option with moving forward is my way."

The door closed behind the commander a moment later and Alexandria tried to convince herself that the chill that ran down her spine was from the chilly recycled air. When she looked back over towards Armitage she lifted her eyebrows upon seeing him bent over, his forehead resting on the console. She'd seen Armitage tense before and certainly stressed out—but the man before her looked beaten. Testing the waters between them, Alexandria carefully asked, "what's his way?"

"Isn't there a library you should be in right about now?"


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

* * *

It had been two weeks since Hux and his translator entered his quarters in the middle of the night. Two weeks since he'd been made aware of a coup in the works. Two weeks since he'd spoken to Alexandria Townes. He'd of course watched her from afar, typically from positions she hadn't even realized he was standing in. Often times she'd barge into one of the control centers or into a room and either yell at Hux or to explain her latest findings...most of which were meager accomplishments, but it still seemed to excite her. He'd also been busy—after bringing the coup to the attention of the Supreme Leader, he'd been given permission to proceed with his plan of action. Although, holding interrogations with each member on the base was starting to wear on him and he was starting to lose sleep. He was even starting to find himself wandering the base at odd hours of the night, looking for anything that felt out of place.

It wasn't until late one evening when he'd sensed her in the library that he decided his pull towards and the curiosity surrounding the translator was too great to ignore any longer. As he made his way towards the library he reasoned with himself that she could potentially offer more information in regards to the coup and at the very least, perhaps provide him with some much needed relief he'd been seeking for months now.

As the tall Force-user stepped up to the library entrance, the metal doors opened with a hiss when he waved his hand off to the side of the key card entry. The library was open to anyone who lived on the base, but after the security breach was discovered everyone was now required to scan in and out of common areas. He took careful steps into the room, heightening his senses in order to help him discover where exactly the brunette was located. He searched through the slits in his helmet, feeling her out as he moved forward between the rows of bookcases. He'd sensed her Force signature early on, but he was also quick to discover that not only was it nowhere near enough for him to be concerned with, she was also completely unaware of its existence and therefore he'd decided she wasn't a threat. Even if she were to become aware of it, there was no way she could do anything with it without undergoing rigorous training from an extremely young age.

The Commander of the First Order tilted his head to the side when he finally felt her, the small vibrations causing his pulse to quicken as if often did. He found her only a moment later, curled up and tucked into a reading pod, a datapad on her lap as she aimlessly scrolled through something that, judging by her expression, was painfully dull.

His boots gave him away first and she lifted her eyes up from the datapad and over to him. One of her carefully sculpted eyebrows lifted and he briefly wondered why he was here again. He had no business being here and he was only playing with fire by approaching her. He watched as she slowly flicked her fingers across the bottom of the datapad, sending it to sleep as he neared her. "Kylo-Ren," he swallowed at the sound of his name coming from her lips and quickly, without him being able to stop the thought, he wondered how 'Ben Solo' would sound.

It didn't take him but a quarter of a second to murder that thought—envisioning it beneath his boot.

"Alexandria Townes." Her name was horribly distorted after his words were processed through his mask. He could sense her curiosity rising, while at the same time she had also brought her guard up. Despite her curious nature, he was well aware she knew he wasn't someone to be trifled with.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Finishing up some business," he glanced around the room, his auricular muscles working to move his ears as he double checked to make sure they were alone in the library.

"At—" she glanced down at the base regulated time piece on her wrist, "—23:00?"

"I believe that question could go both ways."

She lifted a hand and waved it with a gentle roll of her eyes, "translating...always translating."

"At this hour?"

"I only sleep enough to stay a little sane," he knew she was making light of the situation, but he could tell it was the truth, "and there's not much else to do. Armitage doesn't particularly care for me to disturb his slumber and Phasma kicked me out of her quarters a few hours ago. Plus, there appears to be a rule about inviting romantic conquests onto the base so that leaves me with working."

"Romantic conquests…" He lifted his hand and with a small wave and a flick of his index finger, the chair under the table moved towards him, the high back landing in his open palm. It was the second time he'd used the Force in her presence, and while he knew she was curious as to what his role on the base was, he also knew Hux hadn't told her his entire story. He sat down in the chair, now seated across from her as her eyes flickered between the table and the chair and back.

He could feel waves of panic start to radiate off of her as she finally looked up at his helmet, in the direction his eyes would be, "I don't—Jedi?"

"No."

When she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth he swore he was going to lose it then and there. Ever since the incident with his Uncle, he'd found himself slowly losing control over his emotions—to the point where even he was somewhat surprised when he acted out. He hadn't connected the dots yet, as he was far too close to the situation to understand what was happening, but he could tell things were changing—both inside himself and in the galaxy.

He crossed one long leg over another as he stared at her, waiting for her to say something else. "What's the opposite of a Jedi?"

"A Sith."

"Is that what…" She waved her hand towards him, at a loss for words, "that was?"

"No."

"So you're not…"

"No."

She drummed her fingers on her thigh, staring at him with more confusion than fear, "right, ok. I'm thoroughly confused."

"What do you know about the Force?"

"Well," she crossed her own legs, mirroring his body language. He could see the wheels turning as she perked up, eager to focus on something that wasn't just a jumble of letters. "Up until about five seconds ago I thought it was a myth."

"It's not."

"Clearly."

"May I see your datapad?"

She handed it over after a brief moment of hesitation. He found it a little amusing that she was hesitant to hand it to him, not only could he take it with hardly any effort at all, but he also had a high enough level of clearance that she would feel embarrassed for even thinking about not handing it over if she knew. Kylo-Ren glanced over at her before he awakened the device, looking over the translated document once it was on. He could see various words were scratched out and she'd even drawn several arrows from various sentenced to others further down the page. "How is this coming?"

Her only response was an unhappy sigh, causing him to look up from the datapad once more and look at her. She'd since tilted her head back to rest against the reading pod's plush headrest, her eyes closed. "To be completely honest, I'm not even sure what language I'm speaking now."

When his distorted chuckle filled her ears Alexandria quirked the corner of her lip upward as he navigated away from her document translating before accessing the deep archives. They'd found the scrolls deep down in the Empire's old archives, and while much of it would be way over her head, he hoped she would, at the very least, grasp the basic concept.

Years later, Snoke would pinpoint this moment as the moment that changed the entire course of Kylo-Ren's life. But for now, neither of the humans sitting alone in the library knew what was happening.

Several access codes and encryption passwords later, Kylo-Ren finally handed the datapad back over to Alexandria after he'd granted her enough clearance to view a portion of the scrolls. With the device back in her hands, Alexandria's eyes scanned the screen briefly before looking back at him curiously. "I want to read this," she promised him, as if she could tell he was waiting for her to read it, "but I think if I fill my head with anymore archaic information, it might just explode."

"The Force is a living thing," he found himself summarizing, before he was even able to realize what he was doing, "some individuals are Force-sensitive, which allows them to harness the Force, use it as they see fit. History shows us that there's always been a battle between dark and light until they were both wiped out—"

"During the war," Alexandria tilted her head to the side and he could see the unasked questions swimming in her deep blue eyes, "so why are you able to—"

"Not everyone was eliminated," he didn't feel like diving too deep into Snoke and his former master, not particularly caring to dwell in the past at this late hour, "that training was still passed on, even years after the war."

"So that's how you," he watched her motion towards the table and then to his chair, "did that?"

"Mhmm."

"Are you born with it?" He could see Alexandria waking up enough as she sat up a little straighter in her chair, "is it passed down?"

"It can be."

"Do you parents have it?"

"Not really."

"Can you tell if people have it?"

She pursed her lips and he uncrossed his legs, resting his elbows on his knees before continuing, "a lot of individuals are Force-sensitive. I can pick up on their signatures through Force, they come in stronger than people who aren't Force-sensitive—meaning I'm able to sense them better...quicker."

"Is anyone on base Force-sensitive?"

Because the stormtroopers went under heavy brainwashing as children, virtually all of them were the same, with no noticeable Force-sensitives among them. Hux wasn't and neither was Phasma and while he had briefly detected something in Mitaka, the lieutenant's own stupidity kept him from doing anything with it. Aside from Snoke, himself, Mitaka, and now Alexandria, there were no other Force-sensitives on base. "Yes," he finally answered her.

"Are they like you?"

"No." He cleared his throat so as not to startle her, "they don't know they have it."

"Is that pretty common?" She questioned, "out in the galaxy?"

"Probably," Kylo-Ren agreed with her question, "it's not acted upon any longer.

The Jedi organization is gone and no one else is actively seeking out Force-sensitives. In fact, it's probably the opposite actually. I'd imagine you wouldn't want to know if you were."

"Why's that?"

"Because of how you reacted when I called the chair over."

She went silent and he watched her frown over at the table. While she could hide some of her emotions from Hux and the others, she was an open book to him. He'd seen the flickers of fear in her eyes, the daggers of judgement from years and years of believing the Jedi and by extension, the Force, were not to be trusted. Those who had relatives who passed down stories spoke of Force-users who performed "mind-tricks," even going so far as to compare it to "evil spirits" that shouldn't be messed with. He wasn't sure why, but he felt drawn to Alexandria, to the point where he needed her to know he wasn't a monster. After realizing that she wasn't going to say anything else on the matter, he shifted in his chair. "Tell me about your family."

"I'm Pamarthen."

"Yes," his chuckle was deep and genuine, "I've gathered that much."

"Should I be offended?"

"I meant no offense."

"I don't think I'm going to tell you," amusement danced behind her eyes, "or at least not until you remove your helmet." He scoffed and she laughed softly, bringing her knees up to her chest as she folded herself into the reading pod. "Why do you wear it?"

"To sprout fear and chaos?"

"Hmm," She shook her head no, "and the real reason?"

"Not until you tell me about your family."

"Then I guess we'll both be waiting a long time, then." She rested her chin on her knees, "can you read my mind?"

"Yes," he quickly decided honesty was the best way to handle her, "but I'm not."

"But you can."

"Yes." He hesitated briefly, "I can."

"What am I thinking?"

"No." he shook his head, "It doesn't work like that. I can't pick and choose what I see, it's either all or nothing."

"So you'd see—everything?"

"Mhmm."

"Would I know if you were doing it?"

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

"Sometimes." He shrugged casually, "it depends how hard you fight it, really. I'd imagine there's a bit of pressure even if you're not fighting it."

"Do you have to touch the person to do it?"

"Not always," he really wished he knew what she was thinking, there was so much process happening behind her eyes that he wished he could see just a portion of her thoughts.

"Can I keep you out?" She asked softly, "like can I say no?"

"No." Then he shrugged, "I mean—you could try, but you wouldn't be able to. It takes years of practice to do that."

"How do you turn it off?" She asked him, "how can you tell yourself _not_ to read people's minds? Wouldn't it be difficult to do that?"

"Sometimes it is," he could sense urgency behind her question, leading him to believe this wasn't just a question asked out of curiosity. "I have to concentrate too, it's not as easy as walking down the hall and hearing everyone's thoughts. I have to want to read their thoughts." Her only response was a frown and he leaned forward a little more at her expression, "why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you asking?"

Panic radiated off of her once more and this time he frowned behind his mask, trying to figure out if maybe she was actually aware of her own Force-sensitivity and he'd potentially just made the biggest mistake of his life. "No reason."

"I don't like to be lied to." They both felt the shift in the room, as their conversation moved from casual and curious to hostile and demanding. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

Kylo-Ren was out of his chair and standing in front of her before he could stop himself. His gloved hand rested on her temple and she blinked up at him curiously. "Are you going to read my mind?" Her voice was barely above a whisper as she stared up at the reflective helmet, seeing her own wide eyes in the reflection.

"What aren't you telling me?" He wasn't going to repeat the question. Alexandria only had a handful of minutes to turn this conversation around before he'd have to kill her.

"I don't have any sort of professional training," she whispered and if they weren't so close he wouldn't have been able to hear her, "I never learned any languages. I just know them."

"What?"

"Even as a little girl," she continued, her eyes frantically searching the area his eyes would be if he weren't wearing the helmet, "I could understand any language—speak any language. The translations fill in my head, it's automatic now, I don't know how to stop it. Conversations, posters, documents—I can't _not_ translate it. It's why I can't sleep, it literally fills my mind."

She was definitely Force-sensitive, there was no doubt in his mind now. The unfortunate part being that she would never be strong enough to get any control over her gift. "What are you translating now?"

"The document," she answered honestly, "even though I'm not reading it, I can still _see_ it. My mind is still translating it and unless I do something else that dominates the translations, it's just always...there."

"And you can't stop it?

"No." She shook her head, "there's quick fixes that give me a few moments of relief, but nothing long term that I've found thus far."

"How do you find relief?"

"Being intimate." She would've seen his eyes darken if it weren't for his helmet, "death sticks—they used to help quite a bit but not as much anymore. Now it only helps for a few seconds, Port in a Storm used to also do the trick, spent most of my teenage years with that. It's not as effective now and maybe lasts half an hour, if that."

Kylo-Ren moved several steps away from her, almost as quickly as he had moved towards her. His hands rested at his sides as he stared at her, although she wasn't entirely sure he was looking at her, just more of in her general direction. She could tell by his body language he was thinking and having been in a room with him twice before tonight, she knew when he was silent, he was almost always thinking, planning, plotting.

She hoped she hadn't made a mistake tonight. Telling him about her problem hadn't ever been something she planned to do, but his story had interested her and she had hoped maybe he'd have a suggestion or two to help her out. Part of her was even hoping that he'd offer to help her relieve some of this tension she'd been feeling the last few weeks. But now as she stared at the tall figure looming a few feet away from her, she realized that her confession could very well lead to her death. The commander wasn't messing around and she quickly needed to understand that this was the big league and she wasn't on Coruscant anymore.

"You can erase my memory," she blurted out before he'd even said anything and judging by the way his helmet tilted he was now looking directly at her, "we can forget tonight even happened and…"

He lifted a hand and she found her mouth closing. She remembered this move from his apartment, back when he'd done the same thing to Armitage when he was talking. Several more minutes passed by before the Force-user spoke. "Get your things."

"Wh—what?"

Kylo-Ren was losing patience with Alexandria. The two halves that made him up were debating with one another on exactly what he should do with her. Half of him wanted to question her further, dive into her mind and figure out exactly what was going on before deciding if she would still live or not, while the other half wanted to take her back to his bedroom. Either way, he figured, she would be coming with him.

"Get your things," he repeated, this time a little less demanding, watching as she slowly got off the reading pod, her datapad in one hand. He could see her looking around the room and he hoped with everything he had she wasn't stupid enough to run. He'd have no choice but to kill her if she did. "Follow me."

* * *

Sorry for the delay, let me know what you think! :)


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

* * *

Alexandria followed Kylo-Ren quietly, doing her best to keep up with his long strides. After he demanded she follow him, the translator had hurried to grab her things and scan herself out. He'd been already halfway to the lift by the time she'd exited the library. Alexandria had never noticed how tall he was before, until she was standing beside him in the lift. Even without the helmet, that she estimate gave him a few more inches or so, he still towered over her—and could probably snap her in half with just a flick of his wrist.

Alexandria's thoughts drifted to other things the commander could potentially do to her with his wrist and she mentally scolded herself. It was one thing to dream about those scenarios, but it was another to imagine them happening while standing beside the man she pictured doing it with. It wasn't until the doors slid open onto a new level that she realized they were on the floor where his apartment was located.

After a few turns and almost colliding with a sanitation droid around one of the corners, Alexandria found herself once again standing before Kylo-Ren's apartment door. Like most doors the commander approached, this one easily opened with a wave of his palm. It wasn't until they entered the apartment, the doors closing behind them that Alexandria felt beads of sweat form on the small of her back.

The Commander of the First Order pulled his helmet off, tossing it carelessly onto one of the arm chairs. His forehead looked a bit shiny and briefly Alexandria wondered if he was also nervous, but then she remembered it was probably warm under that helmet—especially if he'd worn it all day like she assumed he had. She stood there awkwardly as he ran his hands over his hair, his eyes moving rapidly around the apartment as if he were taking inventory of every piece of furniture and its position. Part of her worried he'd forgotten she was still standing there. Eventually his hands dropped from the back of his neck and he turned to face her.

"Are you going to kill me?"

The commander rolled his eyes so hard she could almost hear it, a deep sigh filtering through his nose a moment later, "I don't kill people in my apartment," he eventually said, "too much paperwork and the droids have to get involved to clean it up—it's easier on everyone if I do it elsewhere."

"Well, alright," Alexandria frowned slightly, sarcasm dripping from her words, "I guess that's reassuring."

"If I were going to kill you, Alexandria, you'd know it." Kylo-Ren took a seat on the leather sectional, rolling his wrist back and forth as he did so. Judging by the way he frowned down at it she could tell it was bothering him. She felt like she should be sitting down too, but instead she remained standing. She wasn't quite sure how to navigate Kylo-Ren's waters just yet and she had a sneaking suspicion they ran deep.

While the man on the couch continued to move his wrist back and forth, eyeing different muscles in his hand as he did, Alexandria took that time to run a sweeping gaze around his apartment once more, her gaze landing on something she hadn't noticed the last time she was here.

"You have a window?"

Her hands shifted into auto pilot as she placed her datapad down on the glass table before she walked the few steps down into the sunken living space, her eyes taking in the dark scene before her. Snow covered everything, the trees dark and tall as they shot upwards. Before she reached the window, a leather glove sailed across the room, narrowly missing her head before it smacked into the middle of the window, the scene before her pixelated and distorted and she could feel the disappointment shooting down her shoulders as they dropped, "it's a hologram."

"We're several miles underground."

"Yes, it makes sense now," she leaned down to pick up the glove, tossing it back towards him as he crossed one leg over the other, catching it with ease, "you didn't have to ruin it, you know."

"I enjoy raining on parades."

"I haven't seen real sunlight or felt real air in weeks."

"It's overrated."

"You're kind of an ass."

"So I've been told once or twice," she caught the smallest lift at the corner of his lip, a slight smirk disappearing quicker than it appeared.

"Are you flirting with me?"

"Perhaps."

Silence fell between them as Alexandria turned away from him to study the hologram before her, watching as the tree branches shivered from the cold wind. Several minutes passed before she spoke, her eyes still trained on the outside image, "how long until you decide I'm not a threat?"

He ignored her question and asked one of his own, "when did you first realize you were...different?"

She only shrugged, which forced him to attempt to calm down his raging side. He was never someone who had a lot of patience and Alexandria's casual attitude was definitely testing his self-control. "Young," she eventually said, "probably not long after I learned to read, I'd imagine." She turned slightly to look at him, "you can't help me, can you?"

"No." He gave his head a shake, "you don't have enough running through your veins."

"How—"

"I threw my glove at your head," he rested his elbow on the arm of the sectional, cradling his chin in his hand, "you didn't see it coming."

"So, that's it?" Her slight frown deepened, and his eyebrows raised curiously, "I didn't catch the glove, so I'm hopeless? Doomed to live like this for the rest of my life?"

"The galaxy can be cruel."

"Your bedside manner is really lacking," her response was so dry he let out a small chuckle before he pushed himself to his feet.

"I need you to sit."

"Why?"

"I need to explore and it's easier if you're seated."

"Explore?"

"Your mind," he pointed to the sectional, "sit." Alexandria wanted to protest, to refuse, but she could tell by his firm expression she may not live much longer if she fought his request. Slowly she walked over to the sectional, taking a seat a moment later. "What are you going to do?"

"Are you ever not asking questions?"

"Forgive me for being curious," her eyes rolled, "I've never had my mind—"

Her eyes closed tightly, her head automatically tilting backwards at the pressure that filled her head. It was ten times worse than her most painful headache, the amount of pressure feeling as if it were stretching her brain, radiating from one side to the other and back. She wasn't sure she could speak, let alone breathe, her heart beating rapidly against her rib cage.

"Relax," Kylo-Ren's voice was close to her and a moment later the cool leather of his glove brushed across her forehead before resting on her temple, "it's worse if you fight it."

"I can't breathe."

"You can."

Alexandria tried to relax, her eyes fluttering open. She hadn't expected him to be so close, his face just off to the side of hers as he held his hand up beside her, gently brushing against her temple when his fingers twitched. The couch dipped as he sat beside her and before she was able to say anything the man beside her dove in. She relived her earliest childhood memories—the moments she irritated her grandmother or friends and then her teenage self trying to find a way to medicate herself so the translations would stop. She watched herself meeting Armitage, her brief stint as an escort and then her meeting DJ. The man beside her skipped over the memories that clearly had nothing to do with anything he was concerned about. It was clear he was looking for something specific, but she wasn't sure what it was. She hadn't even realized a few tears had escaped her eyes when the pressure suddenly vanished.

She blinked rapidly, finally registering the tears on her cheeks as she held his gaze. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No." His reply wasn't any louder than her whispered question, their eyes searching one another's for the answers to any unasked questions.

"I don't walk the straightest line," she said, "but I'm not here to cause any trouble."

"I know."

"Do I get to live?"

"For now," the corner of his lip twitched again, "if you can keep your mouth shut, that is."

"In general? Or about this?"

"This has to stay between us," his dark eyes searched her lighter ones, "I doubt you'd be able to gain any control over it, your abilities are too weak, but you can't attempt to strengthen it, do you understand?"

"I can't figure out if you're insulting me or not."

"There are greater powers at be than you realize," he told her, "and I can't hold them back if you decide to explore this. If anyone else catches wind of what you may have, I won't be able to protect you—I can't protect you."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"What are you keeping something or someone back?" She frowned, "why are you bothering to pro—"

"Because I feel it too," his voice was lower now, his eyes drifting down from hers to her lips, "and I can't do this if you're dead."

His lips were more chapped than she thought they would be and before she was able to focus on the way they felt against her own they were gone. She chased his lips, not satisfied with how short that kiss had been. So short she wasn't even sure if it qualified as a peck. When their lips met for a second time, she did her best to take it all in—her hands reaching out to grab onto anything she could to keep him there. But despite her best efforts, he managed to pull away from her again. Alexandria would've been embarrassed at the small whine that came from the back of her throat at the second loss of contact, but she'd been craving this kind of contact for weeks and now that she had it, the last thing she wanted was to lose it.

"You're testing me."

"I'm about to fall off the couch," Alexandria realized how close she'd pushed the commander to the edge of the couch, and she felt her face flush as he nudged her backwards, taking more room on the sectional. In just a handful of seconds the dark-haired man pulled off both of his gloves and tossed them onto the table nearby before he shifted onto his knees, cupped her face, and kissed her deeply.

The delicious kiss was exactly what she'd been craving, and she probably would've melted at the feeling if he hadn't had a hold on her, pulling her into his atmosphere. "You have no idea—" she'd started to whisper against his lips, but he cut her off, dropping his head to press a hard and deep kiss to her lips, his tongue invading her mouth long enough to get a taste.

"You have to stop talking," his lips brushed against hers as he spoke, his hand lifting to glide through her hair, tugging her head backwards as he nudged her back a little more. He pressed three hot, open mouthed kisses to her throat and Alexandria swore she might explode. When he nudged her again, she happily followed his instruction, her back resting against the soft leather of the sectional as he covered her, bringing some of his weight down onto her. He hovered over her, his dark hair falling around his face as he positioned himself exactly where he wanted to be. It was the kind of contact she'd been dreaming about, and she couldn't help but hum her approval, her own arms wrapping around his neck to bring him closer.

"I'm trying to not crush you."

"Crush me," her leg bent at the knee as he settled himself between her limbs,

"please, for the love of everything in this galaxy, I need to feel your weight."

He laughed, his deep voice filling her ears as they reunited, their lips moving feverishly against the other, as if they were afraid this moment would end sooner than they wanted it to. It wasn't until hands started roaming and top layers of clothing came off that Alexandria pressed her palm to his chest, pushing him back several inches so she could think, "are you clean? Safe?"

"What?" His head was a mess, Alexandria had managed to fill his senses and all he could breathe and hear and see was her, "safe?"

"Safe sex," she breathed heavily, her lips swollen, and cheeks flushed as she

stared back at him, her eyes just as wide as his own, "have you been checked recently?"

"Yeah, safe," he nodded, moving back towards her, wanting her lips on his again, "I'm safe, always safe. You?"

"Safe," her eyes fluttered closed as he nuzzled his way into her neck, sinking down onto her once more. It wasn't until the hands that had been gripping her hips slid upwards under her final top layer that she hooked her leg around his hip, hauling him as close as she possibly could—the two losing themselves in one another for the rest of the night.


End file.
